Imagine heading out on the American Appalachian Trail – a 2,175-mile long trail from Maine to Georgia that ranges from 124 feet in elevation to 6,625 – on a hut-to-hut backpacking trip for one week. Sounds pretty rustic, huh? Now, imagine doing it with only 30 pounds of gear.

Most of us carry that much stuff in our handbags every day! But Jan, a tour guide with Adventures in Good Company, lives out of a light pack several times a year – usually while leading a group of novice backpackers. “You don’t need 90 pounds of gear,” she says. “Lightweight backpacking is the way to go.”

That’s the kind of resourcefulness we at Duluth really admire. And guiding inexperienced hikers on such a trip – the kind that would seem to require a hefty dose of wilderness experience and survival skills – is exactly what the company specializes in. The trips “are for all women,” Jan says, and in fact are limited to women. “I really enjoy that. A lot of women want to do something like this, but they either have no one to go with, or they only have men to go with – who end up doing everything for them. I like the opportunity to teach women to have competence and confidence in the wilderness.”

Founded in 1999 by outdoor enthusiast Marian Marbury, Adventures in Good Company offers a variety of trips requiring a range of skill levels in pursuits like backpacking, climbing, mountaineering and kayaking. Some trips, like “Summertime in Door County, Wisconsin,” are less strenuous than others, like the “Kilimanjaro Climb and Safari.” But the point is there’s something for everyone, and all ages are welcome. Jan herself is 59 – though “I don’t feel it!” – and only started mountaineering in her late thirties. Owner Marian says on the company’s website that she was planning to learn whitewater kayaking at age 50, but now thinks it may have to wait ’til 60.

Though Jan was a self-described tomboy as a child and always loved the outdoors (“I was always playing in the woods and climbing trees when other girls were playing dress-up”), it wasn’t until 2000 that she became a full-time adventure guide, after tagging along with a friend on an AGC climbing trip to Joshua Tree National Park. “I made the transition from nursing to motherhood first,” says the former nurse and mom of five. But her family was always active; her husband took up whitewater paddling when the children were still little, and Jan thought, “He’s not going to be the only one who gets to do stuff like that!” It wasn’t long before the couple took their two youngest boys on a mountaineering trip to France. “I can’t believe I had my 9-year-old doing that,” she laughs, but the family’s adventures instilled a love of the outdoors in her children, too.

Because Jan feels so grateful for the outdoor experiences she’s had, she is an adamant advocate of Leave No Trace backpacking. It’s the first lesson she teaches on her trips: “Pack everything in, pack everything out.” It’s more difficult than it sounds.

“I enjoy what I’m doing. I genuinely enjoy teaching it and being out in the wilderness…I guess that comes across. It makes me think about how I do it, because I want to keep doing what I’m doing! I so enjoy this.”

Even though she travels far and wide, Jan is right at home.

To learn more about Jan, her fellow guides, and Adventures in Good Company, please visit www.adventuresingoodcompany.com